I have germinated seedlings from seed purchased from wildseedtasmania.com. If that web address is wrong just google wild seed tasmania. They are a very reputable and reliable company. Not sure how this species will tolerate humidity, however. how does it fare in dry mediterranean heat versus humid southern heat?

Beutiful photos from Conifers. Also, you are right-Thuja occidentalis is grown throughout the Atlanta area. wrt comments from Pineresin.Thank you for the corrections in nomenclature. Would like to add a few comments: 1. Taiwania flousiana vs. cryptomeriodes-I have read that flousiana grows a leader very easily and has a less blue green color, and this is the same behavior I have seen in the specimens I have grown. Can't comment on whether flousiana is actually a distinct species. 2. darjeelingsensis vs. cashmeriana vs. pseudohimlaicia-I have acquired several Cuppressus "darjeelingsensis" and a couple of "psuedohimalaica" from a US supplier (these are the names used by the supplier). The supplier calls the seed-grown trees darjeelingsensis and trees grown from cuttings, pseudohimalaica, and the pseudohimalaica have the weeping bluish branchlets that I have seen on trees called cashmeriana in botanic gardens in the US. The two pseudohimalaica I have, have only survived one mild winter here, so I don't know if they are viable in Atlanta, but they will be a wonderful addition to the local landscape if they are hardy here. (The Atlanta Botanic Garden grows their "cashmeriana" indoors in pots). The ABG "cashmeriana" and the "cashmeriana" grown at the Huntington Botanical Garden in Pasadena have the same appearance as the pseudohimalaica). 3. I have seen that Cunninghamia "unicaniculata" listed as lanceolota in almost all references as you indicate. Some suppliers in the US distinguish between them, perhaps because of the appearance, which is quite distinct, and climate preferences. In terms of climate preferences, the unicaniculata sold commercially in the US have behaved more like konishi than lanceolata for me. I understand that there is also controversy as to whether konishi shoud be a separate species (from lanceolata). 4. Chamaecyparis thyoides var. Henryae-quite right.

My friend said a lot of smooth trunked eucalypts are still standing in her area after the vic fires. Wish I could grow grevillea rosmarinifolia , but the kangaroos eat them down to nothing. We had a fire lit by a fire bug around midnight a week ago after a very hot day, with fierce winds blowing through the valley. Luckily I was still up and noticed the huge orange glow above the forest and rang it in - it was a kilometre away, very scary. I've been researching fire retardant plants and tearing my hair out, the lists are so contradictory, especially now that I've found the Tasmanian government site. They reckon many of the plants listed as fire retardants are in fact highly flammable eg acmena smithii (lilypilly), casuarina cunninghamiana (river sheoak), elaeocarpus reticulatus (blueberry ash) corymbia maculata (spotted gum). But I've spoken to someone who said fire swept through a friend's vineyard and was stopped by a line of lillypillies. Also I tried burning fresh lillypilly leaves on a big bonfire one year and they didn't want to burn. Surely there's a reliable list out there somewhere done by someone who knows their stuff? For now IÂm going by the ACT government list (type in Âfirewise home gardensÂ) and the Country Fire Service of South Australia list, in the hope that after their bush fires, theyÂll have done some decent research. If anyoneÂs interested, I have compiled a list of most commonly mentioned fire retardant plants, with a code indicating who recommends them, whether the Tassies reckon they are flammable, and whether they are weeds  an amazing number of them are! Do you want me to post it? These are the other results I got testing plants on my bonfire. Acacia iteaphylla (flinders range wattle which many lists say is fire retardant) burnt pretty easily. Acacia vestita and acacia elata (cedar wattle) were slow to burn. Acacia floribunda and a. cognata both flared up very quickly. The needles of casuarina cunninghamiana flared into flame quite quickly but immediately died, and the wood didnÂt seem inclined to burn. Eucalyptus leucoxylon took quite a while to catch, then just kind of melted  however it often has quite a few dead branches on the tree so this could be a fire hazard. Corymbia/euc maculata burnt like leucoxylon. Callistemon little john and c. dawson river weeper didnÂt catch quickly, and didn't burn with a whoosh. Hakea laurina (pincushion hakea) didnÂt catch very easily. Leptospermum nanum (red) flared up very quickly. Japanese bamboo was terrifying, it exploded, sounding like gunfire going off all over the valley, although admittedly it was dry, as weÂd cut it down during an evacuation alert. Does anyone know if rosemary actually is a good fire retardant? I've seen it on quite a few lists; some say only the prostrate form is fire tolerant.

Yeah, the website Nathan linked to is well worth checking out...its to trees for life here in SA, they have a free tree scheme that gets volunteers growing natives for landholders in SA. Each year they produce a propagation booklet for their volunteers, which gives good info on most commonly grown genera. Maybe this info is on the website - worth looking for. I have grown trees for them and they tend to time their planting of seeds of various species so that they can all be planted out around the time that good rainfall can be expected to minimise the need to water. From memory most things were planted around December & January. They send out propagation kits that include seed raising mix that has a high % of coarse sand and has a slow release fertiliser for natives added, they also use a fine gravel 'mulch' on top of each 'tube'. Most seedlings are started off in shade and put into full when they grow their first true leaves. It sounds like you have mostly eucalypts, and possibly some allocasuarinas, or maybe some callitris (?). You will need to do some searching on this. or post a pic to verify the species as I believe callitris is best sown in the cooler months.\ Here in SA, if you become a member of TFL you can get all the things you need to grow seedlings using your own seed, but you need to be able to get to a collection depot to pick up the gear. In Victoria, I think a free tree scheme is run by "Men of Trees", which is the original name of TFL, try contacting them. In terms of treatment of seeds, the eucalypts can just be sown direct in to the seed raising mix with no pre-treatment at all and sprinkled with a little mix over the top. Allocasuarinas (this is what I think you are describing as little pine cones - pics would be really useful!) also need no pre-treatment, but should be sown a little deeper. Both Eucs and Allocasuarinas are pretty easy to grow, its hard to give advice on anything else until you have figured out what they actually are. Cheers, mudlark PS: you could also try direct seeding your property, this involves spreading the seed either mechanically or by hand and hoping something grows before the ants knick it all! Usually, depending on rainfall you will either have a really lousy result or it grows up like a very unnatural forest and you then need to thin it all out to avoid loads of spindly saplings. (you might guess, I'm not a big fan of direct seeding! but if you're interested you could try an internet search on the subject.)